here's five things i wish i knew as a beginner gravel cyclist number one
gravel is a pretty broad term and to be honest we haven't got that much of it in the uk when i think
of gravel i think of this but in reality it's more like this gravel is a broad term it's a bit of an
industry buzzword but really it just means riding off-road if you're riding in the uk it's probably
going to be a mix of walking tracks bridal way mountain bike trail and some towpath style like
packed down gravel paths that aren't used by cars it will help you test your skills and stay
interesting with a new challenge around every corner the skills that you learn on a gravel
bike will help you on your road bike too you'll be hopping up curves and doing all sorts of little
things just bear in mind that if you sign up to an event or join a local club ride that's advertised
as gravel it might be a bit more technical than just a smooth gravel track but that's
okay get off and walk if you need to trust your equipment and enjoy yourself that's the main thing
gravel bikes are seriously capable you can ride proper trails on these
now i didn't ride a mountain bike in the 90s but i know people who have and they'll
tell you modern gravel bikes are more capable than mountain bikes in the 90s
were and they were riding some pretty gnarly stuff still reliable light components
disc brakes tire technology all of this stuff has got so much better in the last few years
and it makes for a great experience where you really can push these bikes really far in terms
of what terrain you can ride here's some clips of tony riding the black trails at hamsterly the
local mountain bike park to us now we don't all have the skill set of tony but this goes to show
if you do have the skills what these bikes can do now what tony is riding here is actually a
cyclocross bike and they're quite similar but tire clearance is the thing that sets these bikes apart
tire choice can make or break your ride what you're really riding on mud grass hard pack gravel
rocks you need to work out what the best tool for the job is because this can drastically affect how
good of a ride you have if you're riding hardpack gravel like a towpath down by river or a gravel
road then a slick tyre might still be the best choice in terms of speed now this one is really
skinny this is like a 25 mil but the gravel world champs a couple of years ago which i think was in
kansas your classic american style gravel race was one on 34 mil slicks so no real tread on
the tire at all bear in mind though the wider you go the more comfortable ride you can have
because you can lower the pressure without risk of pinch pantry muddy walking style tracks that's
where you're going to need knobblies now there's a variety of different tyres on the market that have
novels generally the closer together they are and the smaller they are the faster rolling the tyre
is going to be but the less grip that it'll have the bigger and more spread out the nozzles are
the more grip you'll have but the slower rolling the tyre will be and it's a very big difference
on my mountain bike i've got two sets of wheels available one have cross-country tires on them
which are quite fast rolling and still knobbly then i've got mud tyres which don't look that much
different but they're significantly bigger novels and it slows you down so much you're going to have
a way better time riding loose surfaces and mud if you have bigger knobbles but if you go for
skinny slick tyres and then you end up in some mud you can really end up in trouble you won't have
any grip at all and you'll be putting the power down and nothing will be happening because your
back wheel will just be slipping essentially the message here is choose wisely and work out what
surfaces you're going to be riding before you choose your tires quick plug for my tire video
which i'll put in the link down below which is all about tire choice for off-road bikes
as of today making this video most gravel bikes don't have any form of suspension so all the
compliance that your bike is going to have is going to come from your tires the wider you go the
less pressure you can run which leads to a more comfortable ride if you run low pressures with
inner tubes then you're going to be prone to pinch punches this is when you hit a bump of some sort
your tyre bottoms out pinches your inner tube which is inside your tire against the rim and
usually causes a hole or more often than not two holes their nicknamed snake bite punches
because you'll get one on each side of the tire as it bottoms out not a great situation
but tubeless completely eradicates this problem you haven't gotten in a tube inside the tire at
all there is just air and sealant which is just gloopy stuff that should seal any holes that do
appear this means you can run really low pressures with tubeless without the risk of pinch puncturing
it's been the done thing on mountain bikes for years and years there's a lot of parallels with
gravel cycling and it works so well for this too let us know in the comment section how have you
guys found tubeless if you have ridden it my background is being a roadie so we always use
inner tubes for training and sometimes tubulars for racing i've had a pretty good experience with
riding off-road tubeless but not so much on the road i found that the pressure's a little bit
too high and it kind of just spurts out everywhere and then you end up with like sealant all over you
not great but i think the technology is getting better and better and i'll be interested to see
how much better it gets in the next few years let us know in the comment section tubeless yes or no
650bs can transform your bike ride these are 650b these are 700t actually look kind of the same
one of them is smaller 650b is actually 27.5 inch so that's in mountain bike sizes it's
a very common wheel size along with 700c probably the most common bicycle wheel size
in the world now the huge benefit to riding 650bs is that if you're on a slightly older gravel bike
that doesn't have as much tire clearance or a cyclocross bike it's a smaller wheel so you'll
be able to squeeze in more tire because there'll be more space in between your frame and where
your tire is and also where your front mech might come close to your tire a wider tire will also sit
taller on your wheel as well so it kind of counteracts the fact that your wheel is smaller is
still about the same diameter when the tires are mounted now assuming you've got space there's no
reason why you can't run an actual mountain bike tire that's 27.5 inch on a 650b wheel so there's
loads of choice if you're in the market for tires particularly knobbly ones which you might need
if you're riding in muddy sloppy conditions perhaps choosing this option choosing a wheel that
doesn't roll quite as fast and a big fat knobbly tyre won't be as quick but ask yourself will it be
more fun here in the northeast at least everyone rides 650bs around because it's fun and at the end
of the day that's what cycling is about right that marks the end of today's video i hope you enjoyed
a few introductory tips to do with gravel and if you have any questions please put them in
the comment section down below if you enjoyed this video i've put all of my tips style videos
into a playlist on my channel so if you go onto my channel subscribe and you can see the playlist
there there might be some more videos that you'd be interested in thank you as always for watching
and see you guys soon always a conclusion tony can you ride a gravel or cross bike on mountain
bike trails the answer is yes if your name is tony fawcett most people are not called tony
fawcett and do not have the skill level of tony i think you had fun but a lot of other people
who would try and replicate that might not have fun yeah ah it wouldn't be much fun right and
i don't mind it but it's got a purpose hasn't it i've ridden the crossbar today because i need to
get used to riding the crossbar but if i was a normal person that would have just been horrible